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or more
than sixty years Blau Oyster Company has been farming Pacific Oysters
in Samish Bay. Year after year we plant, tend and harvest our crops
on a broad
strip of land between high and low tides. Our story is that of Samish
Bay and the Pacific Oyster in North America. |
| Samish Bay has always
been a great, natural producer of shellfish thanks to its extensive
tidelands, nutrient-rich cold currents from nearby Georgia Straits
and plentiful, clean fresh water sources. |
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Due to
over-harvesting, the native Olympia Oyster was in rapid decline
throughout Puget Sound when the first commercial plantings of Pacific
Oysters were made in Samish Bay.
Introduced
from Japan in the early 1920's, the Pacific Oyster is hardier
and better adapted to aquaculture than the Olympia Oyster. For
Northwest shellfish farmers the Pacific Oyster
has proven to be the best oyster to meet a growing demand and
to support a viable industry.
Nearly all of our Samish Bay Pacific Oysters
are raised from "seed" or juvenile oysters
produced in a hatchery. In recent years we have begun to suspend
seed for growing to adulthood
on horizontal arrays of rope called longlines.
The majority of seed however, is broadcast directly
on intertidal ground where it remains, barring weather extremes
and predation, for up to four years feeding on naturally occurring
microorganisms called plankton.
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oday's
consumer can buy fresh Pacific oysters year round from a number
of growers in the Northwest who, like Blau Oyster Co., owe their
existence to the adaptability
of the Pacific Oyster, its wide appeal among seafood lovers, and
to the hard work
and foresight of early oyster farmers. |
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Baskets filled with oysters at
low tide are pulled out of the
water and landed at high tide. |
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hen oysters
reach market size they are harvested and processed at our shore-side
plant on Samish Island. Most are "shucked" or removed
from their shells, graded
to size and sold, fresh, to distributors, stores and restaurants.
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A smaller
portion of our production consists of live oysters in the shell
for half-shell consumption and barbecuing. |
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